Upton-on-line
notes french reaction to the slaying of Sir Peter Blake,
gives a glimpse of how one young diasporan, Hamish Coop,
thinks about New Zealand from afar and describes the sorry
tale of an aborted submarine expedition of Lake Taupo by the
Institute ...

With
Peter Jackson's signature becoming as rare as dragons'
teeth, Volunteer Service Abroad is hoping for a good return
when it puts a copy of the Lord of the Rings, signed by the
film director, up for auction this week.

This
opinion piece is the ninth in a new series of "PC's Weekly
Opinion" - a pithy, heavily spiced editorial from Peter
Cresswell that can be delivered to your in-box once a week.
If you like what you read then feel free to forward it to
...

Terrorism struck at the
heartland of America as major news broadcasters reported
that a ¡¥terrorist¡¦ had shot 35 people at a manufacturing
plant in Goshen, Indiana late last week. As America prepared
to Strike Back, initial reports indicated that ...

Rumors of the United
States increasing the war against terrorism to include and
punish other countries in the region has been wafting
through the Middle East. If the US is intent on doing so, it
is not without a price to pay. Mistrust, outrage,
...

The Northwoods plan for
staging phony attacks on the U.S. to justify invading Cuba
was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962. It was
never implemented, perhaps due to fear of Soviet
retaliation.

The refusal by the
Labour/Alliance Coalition Government to allow ACT to take up
National's generous offer to use one of their seats on an
aircraft going to Ohakea for the laying up of the air combat
Squadron's colours is pathetic, ACT Defence Spokesman
...

Hey kids, want to make the
world a better place? Then grow up: Start a business or get
a job. Do you want to provide new help for the world¡¦s
poor? Hire them. Corporate greed has helped far more people
than big puppets ever will.

1. Dr WAYNE MAPP to the Minister
of Justice: Is it his intention that serious violent
offenders, including rapists, will be eligible for parole at
one-third of their sentence under the Sentencing and Parole
Reform Bill; if so, why?

Only a
company like Microsoft could be attacked for offering kids
free computers. But that was what happened when the company
announced recently that it would donate up to $1bn worth of
computers and software to more than 12,500 schools in the
US.

President Bush was correct
in his speech on the Pearl Harbor Day that leaders, whether
the commander of chief of the most powerful nation or the
spoke person of a fragile extremist group, always hide in
shelters when young soldiers fight in the front in
...

The
government¡¦s plan to change legislation on parallel
importing of films, videos and DVDs is a response to many
concerns about the future of regional cinemas, Associate
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Judith Tizard said
today.

Two Jewish members of the
Jewish Defense League were arrested in Los Angeles early
Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to bomb
Arab-American and Islamic institutions in Culver City,
California.

I don¡¦t know what the
recently routed Queenstown council was planning to build
when they carved a great chunk out of the green hillside of
trees above their town, to make way for a ¡§development¡¨
they called the Commonage. But I wouldn¡¦t mind betting
...

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

Contact Alastair Thompson

The ScoopPro licensing terms require that commercial users of Scoop.co.nz pay a reasonable fee in order to access the Scoop site so that this same information remains free and accessible to the wider public regardless of their disposable income. More>>

ALSO:

A combination of new technology, ideas, institutions and business models and a renewed energy and commitment by the Scoop team, means Scoop aims to be at the forefront of the development of this renaissance that we term ‘News 3.0’. More>>

ALSO:

Scoop Co-Founder Alastair Thompson - One of the saddest aspects of the decline of the news industry, not just here in NZ - but everywhere, is that it often seems invisible, in large part because news is a confidence business... More>>

ALSO:

Brexit has left the British public looking like a nation of Wellington bus commuters. In both cases, the unholy mess bears no resemblance to what people were promised or the spin being used to justify it. More>>

On the big picture, the poll predictions were dead right. In the end, the Democratic Party won a clear victory in the House, and lost as expected in the Senate, where it had been defending at least 10 seats in regions that had voted heavily for Trump in 2016. More>>